Biden, Levin give Petraeus preview

Sens. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) blasted the Bush administration’s Iraq policy and its controversial surge in U.S. troops days before widely anticipated testimony to their committees from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

In a conference call, Levin and Biden gave Petraeus and Crocker an idea of what to expect next week. They said Iraq remains in a state of deterioration, despite the continued presence of U.S. troops and the commitment of billions of dollars in taxpayer money.

{mosads}Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he foresees no end to the situation in Iraq until President Bush leaves office or voters in November give Democrats a filibuster-proof 60-vote margin in the Senate.

Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, acknowledged that last year’s troop increase quelled violence. But he said it failed in its real purpose: to allow time for political stability and reconciliation, as supervised by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

“It’s like going from drowning to treading water,” he said. “The strategic purpose hasn’t been realized. We are not any closer to any lasting accommodation. They still can’t govern themselves.”

Levin blasted al-Maliki as “incompetent,” “corrupt” and prone to sectarian biases. He also said he plans to press Petraeus and Crocker to explain why U.S. taxpayers are funding the Iraqi reconstruction, particularly through higher gas prices, when Iraqis have massive fiscal surpluses due to the escalating cost of oil.

“It’s not a partisan issue,” Levin said. “Taxpayers are both Democrats and Republicans. And they don’t want us paying for things (Iraqis) should be paying for.”

Republicans have argued a pullout from Iraq would lead to a disaster and have praised the surge for reducing violence in Iraq.

Presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) are expected to attend the hearings — Clinton and McCain are on Armed Services while Obama sits on Foreign Relations. Both chairmen strongly emphasized that they will avoid politicizing the hearings, such as by not allowing Clinton or Obama to speak outside of traditional rotation. McCain will get an early say because he is the ranking Republican on the Armed Services panel.

“These are matters of life and death, and we have an obligation to approach it that way,” Levin said. “In tone and substance, it will be no different.”

McCain allies are likely to hit Clinton for her comments to Petraeus and Crocker during last year's hearings that reading their progress reports on Iraq requires "the willing suspension of disbelief."

The next big Iraq debate will occur over the balance of a nearly $200 billion fiscal 2008 spending package for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress approved $70 billion worth of that package last December.

Levin also said Friday there would be another effort to attach either a binding timetable, or a goal, for withdrawing troops from Iraq in nine or 12 months. Repeated Democratic efforts on setting timetables have fallen well short of the 60 needed for adoption.